A Real Life Halloween Monster

Sutherland, Nebraska, is a village of 1.3 square miles in Lincoln County, about three and a half hours from Lincoln and three hours and forty-five minutes from Denver. In 1975 it held roughly 800 to 850 people, mostly ranchers and railroad workers. The village was incorporated in 1905, is named after a Union Pacific official called Robert Sutherland, and sits alongside the old Mormon, Oregon and Pony Express routes. In October 1975 it became the scene of the worst crime in its history.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Amos worked on the railroad for about forty years. this part of the story is covered for now He was not considered a troublemaker, but he was never bright or successful. He married Mary Olson in the mid-1960s, and the couple had a daughter who died before her first birthday. The death broke the marriage, and they divorced in either 1967 or 1971; the court records the episode cites give both years. details of the account remain covered until revealed Their house stood next to the home of Henry Kelly.

Henry Kelly was 66 and semi-retired, doing farm work to add to his social security. His wife Audrey Marie was 57. Their son David, 36, lived a short way off with his children Diana, seven, and Daniel, five, and the family ate at the grandparents' house most nights. Henry and Audrey had also adopted their granddaughter Florence Maria, aged ten, after her mother was killed in a car accident. Henry was regarded as the kindest man in town. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now At about eight in the evening he asked his sister to drive him home, and she left him there and went back to the bar. He spent half an hour with his thirteen-year-old nephew, then took a .22 rifle and ammunition from his sister's bedroom. He told the boy to keep the younger children inside because he was going to fire some shots, and went out. Neighbours heard sporadic shots. He came back about forty-five minutes later, unloaded the rifle and wrote a note on the kitchen table: he was sorry to all, it was the best way out, and they should not cry. Then he sat down with his nephew and told him calmly that he had gone next door and killed all the Kellys, and told him to telephone his mother and grandparents.

What he had done was this. He went into the Kelly house armed. Most of the family was out at the back, and the first person he met was ten-year-old Florence. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Audrey Kelly came in next, and he shot her in the forehead and raped her too. this part of the story is covered for now Six people were dead. He then went home, told his nephew, and left the rifle. His sister's boy did not believe him at first, and neither did his father Amos, who told him he was making things up.

The news reached the town in a strange way. At 9.18 that evening Don Feldman, the only full-time newsman at the local station KNOP, took a call from a man claiming to be from the sheriff's office who said something terrible had happened in Sutherland. details of the account remain covered until revealed The warning said a sniper with a shotgun was loose and everybody should lock their doors and windows. Police cars, roadblocks, officers from every town and a television helicopter from Denver descended on the village. Families sat in the dark with their shotguns. Sheriff Gordon 'Hop' Glister, 22 miles away, suffered a mild heart attack from the excitement.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The bartender said he seemed entirely normal. He then went home and hid in the high weeds behind the two houses for the rest of the night, while police searched and the helicopter circled overhead. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed At eight the next morning he knocked at his sister's back door. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He first claimed he had been watching television, then admitted killing everybody. this part of the story is covered for now He also admitted fantasies about killing and raping young girls and older women over the previous seven or eight months.

The funeral was held in the high school auditorium because so many people wanted to attend: about a thousand people in a town of 850. The mayor, Herb Meisner, who owned the grain elevator where David and Henry had worked, identified the bodies and said he went into mild shock. details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The Nebraska Press Association sued, and the case eventually reached the US Supreme Court, which unanimously struck the order down. Locally, the gag order made rumours worse. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now At the retrial the evidence was much the same. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed In 1989 he asked for supervised visits and treatment outside; in 1990 he was allowed visits to doctors and in 2003 supervised time away. In 2005 Dr Jack Anderson diagnosed him with schizophrenia, pedophilia and necrophilia, saying he would always suffer from them. Judges refused release in 2013, 2017 and again in October 2019, when psychiatrists said he had shown no sign of illness for thirty years. The Supreme Court ruling that bore his case is still celebrated by journalism students in Nebraska.